Quote Originally Posted by DTLarca View Post
Okay, say the 1kg of nitrogen warms up to 20°C being the ambient temperature. And the free water in the system is at -11°C (frozen) and is 1 gram in weight.

The 1kg of nitrogen would be able to pass 31kJ of heat to that gram of moisture. But how much actually comes in contact with the 1 gram of moisture? How much does the ice actually subcool on account of the rise in system pressure? Does the heat cause more vaporisation than the pressure causes subcooling?
The nitrogen is acting as a heat transfer medium, as only radiation is transfered in a vacuum. Therefore, it is not just the energy of the nitrogen but the continual energy pick up from the system due to convection/conduction.